is very different from what becomes members | frages I must say) instead of voluntary; serof a republic: and what shall we say of their vile instead of free? Not to mention Liciproposal, which they are so incensed at your nius and Sextius, the years of whose perpeturejecting? It is exactly of a piece, citizens, ated power, as if they were kings, ye number with their language. He says, I desire it may in the capitol; what man is there this day, be enacted, that it shall not be lawful for you in the state, so mean, that he might not, by the to elect into the consulship such persons as ye opportunities created by this law, make his way may approve for can he mean otherwise who to the consulship, with greater ease, than we or orders that one consul must necessarily be taken our children? Since, in some cases, it will not from the plebeians, and does not allow you the be in your power to elect us, though ye wish power of electing two patricians? If wars it, and ye will be under a necessity of electing were to be waged now, such as the Etrurian them, though against your will. Of the injury for instance, when Porsena lay on the Janicu- offered to merit, I shall say no more, for merit lum; or, as the Gallic lately, when, except the regards only the human race. But what shall capitol and citadel, all places were in possession I say, with respect to religion, and the auspices; of the enemy, and that Lucius Sextius stood the affront and injury offered to which, reflect candidate for the consulship with Camillus, immediately on the immortal gods? That this would ye be able to bear, that Sextius should, city was founded under auspices; that all busiwithout any competition, be made consul, while ness, civil and military, foreign and domestic, Camillus would be obliged to struggle against the is conducted under them, who can be ignorant? danger of a repulse? Is this to introduce a In whom therefore is the privilege of auspices community of honours? to make it lawful for vested according to the constitution of our two plebeians, but unlawful for two patricians, forefathers? In the patricians undoubtedly. to be chosen consuls. To make it necessary to For no plebeian magistrate is even so elected. elect one plebeian, but allowable to pass by all So peculiar to us are the auspices, that the pathe patricians; what sort of fellowship, what trician magistrates, whom the people may apsort of confederacy is this? Are you not sat-prove, can be in no other manner elected; isfied with obtaining a part of that in which hitherto you have had no concern; must you be laying violent hands on the whole? I fear, says Sextius, that if ye are at liberty to elect two patricians, ye will elect no plebeian. What is this but to say, because ye would not, of your own choice, elect unworthy persons, I will impose on you a necessity of admitting them without choice? What follows, but that, if one plebeian be named, together with two patricians, he is not even under an obligation to the people, and may say, that he was appointed by the law, and not elected by their suffrages?

XLI." The power of extorting, not of suing for honours, is what they aim at; and to attain the most exalted without incurring the obligations even of the lowest they choose also to make their way to them by means of accidental successes, rather than by merit. Is there any man who can think it an affront to have his character inspected and estimated? Who can deem it reasonable, that he alone, amidst struggling competitors, should have a certainty of obtaining honours? Who would exempt himself from your judgment? Who would render your suffrages necessary (if suf

while we ourselves, without the suffrages of the people, create an interrex, under auspices; and, in private stations also hold such privilege, which they do not, even when in office. Does not he then, in effect, abolish the auspices, who by creating plebeian consuls, takes them out of the hands of the patricians, the only persons capable of holding them? They may now mock at religion, and say, where is the great matter, if the chickens do not feed? If they come out too slowly from the coop? If a bird chaunt an ominous note? These are trivial matters: but by not disregarding these trivial matters, our ancestors raised this state to the highest eminence. In the present times, as if we stood in no need of the favour of the gods, we violate all religious institutions. Let therefore pontiffs, augurs, kings of the sacrifices, be chosen at random. Let us place the tiara of Jupiter's flamen on any one that offers, provided he be a man.

Let us commit the Ancilia, the shrines, the gods, and the charge of their worship, to persons to whom they cannot, without impiety, be intrusted. Let neither laws be enacted, nor magistrates elected under auspices. Let not the approbation of the senate be requisite,

either to the assemblies of the centuries, or | victory was neither doubtful, nor obtained of the Curias. Let Sextius and Licinius, with difficulty by the Romans; although, like Romulus and Tatius, reign in the city of from people's recollection of former misforRome, in return for their generosity in plun- tunes, the coming of the Gauls had diffused dering from other men's fortunes: in giving very great teiror. Many thousands of the baraway other men's money and lands, does it not barians were slain in the field, and great numoccur to you, that by one of these laws, great bers in the storming of their camp. The rest part of the possessions must be converted into dispersing, mostly towards Apulia, escaped, desolate wilds, in consequence of the owners partly, by continuing their flight to a great being expelled from them by the other, that distance; and partly, by being, through discredit would be annihilated, by which all human may and terror, scattered widely, in different society must be at an end. For every reason, quarters. The dictator had a triumph decreed then, I am of opinion, that ye ought to reject him, with the concurrenee of the senate and those propositions altogether. Whatever is commons. Scarcely, however, had he got rid your determination, may the gods grant it a of the business of this war, than he found happy issue." employment, from a more violent commotion at home and the issue of an obstinate struggle was, that the dictator and senate were overpowered, and the proposition of the tribunes admitted. In consequence, an election of consuls was held, in spite of the opposition of the nobility, in which Lucius Sextius was niade consul, the first of plebeian rank. Nor did the disputes end even here. The patricians refusing to give their approbation, the affair was likely to produce a secession of the commons, with dreadful consequences; when their dissensions were accommodated on terms, by the interposition of the dictator. The nobility made concessions to the commons, with respect to the plebeian consul, and the commons to the nobility with respect to one prætor to be elected out of the patricians, to administer justice in the city. Concord being, by these means, restored between the orders, after such a long continuance of mutual animosity, the senate were of opinion, that such an event deserved to be signalized by an exhibition of the most magnificent games, and by the addition of another day, to the usual three, of the Latine festival; expecting on this occasion, if on any whatever, to find a general willingness to show that testimony of gratitude to the immortal gods. But the plebeian ædiles refused to undertake the business: on which the younger patricians, with one accord, cried out, that out of their desire of paying due honour to the deities, they would with pleasure perform it, provided they were appointed ædiles. Their offer was accepted, with universal thanks, and the senate decreed, that the dictator should propose to the people, to appoint two of the patricians to the office of ædiles; and that the senate would give their approbation to all the elections made in that year.

XLII. The speech of Appius produced no other effect, than the putting off the decision on the propositions to another time. Sextius and Licinius, being again re-elected tribunes, the tenth time, procured a law to be enacted, that, of the decemvirs, for superintending religious matters, half should be chosen from among the commons. Accordingly, five patricians were elected, and five plebeians. Which step being gained, the way seemed open to the consulship. Satisfied with this victory, the commons conceded so far to the patricians, that, no mention being made of consuls for the present, military tribunes should be elected. [Y. R. 388. B. C. 364.] The election fell on Aulus and Marcus Cornelius a second time, Marcus Geganius, Publius Manlius, Lucius Veturius, and Publius Valerius a sixth time. Except the siege of Velitræ, an affair of which the issue was rather tedious than doubtful, the Romans were undisturbed by any foreign concerns; when a sudden report of the Gauls approaching in arms, occasioned so great an alarm that Marcus Furius Camillus was appointed dictator the fifth time, and he nominated Titus Quintius Pennus master of horse. Claudius asserts, that a battle was fought with the Gauls this year, on the banks of the river Anio, and that, at this time, happened the famous combat on the bridge, in which Titus Manlius, engaging with a Gaul who had challenged him, slew him in the sight of the two armies, and spoiled him of a chain. But I am led, by the authority of many writers to believe, that these events happened at least ten years later; and that a pitched battle was now fought with the Gauls by the dictator Camillus, in the territory of Alba.

The

THE

HISTORY OF ROME.

BOOK VII.

The offices of prætor and curule ædile instituted. A pestilential disorder rages in the city; of which dies the oelebrated Furius Camillus. Scenic representations first introduced. Curtius, armed, on horseback leaps into a gulf in the forum. Titus Manlius, having slain in single combat a Gaul, who challenged any of the Roman soldiers to fight, takes from him a golden chain which he wears, and is, from thence, called Torquatus. Two new tribes added, called the Pomptine and Publilian. Licinius Stolo is found guilty, upon a law carried by himself, of possessing more than five hundred acres of land. Marcus Valerius, surnamed Corvinus, from having, with the aid of a crow, killed a Gaul, who challenged him, is next year elected consul, though but twenty-three years old. A treaty of friendship made with the Carthaginians. The Campanians, overpowered by the Samnites, surrender themselves to the Roman people, who declare war against the Samnites. P. Decius Mus saves the Roman army, brought into extreme danger by the consul A. Cornelius. Conspiracy and revolt of the Roman soldiers in the garrison of Capua. They are brought to a sense of duty, and restored to their country, by Marcus Valerius Corvus, dictator. Successful operations against the Hernicians, Gauls, Tiburtians, Privernians, Tarquinians, Samnites, and Volscians.

did not suffer it to pass unnoticed, that the patricians, by way of requital for one plebeian consulship, had assumed to themselves three

I. THIS year [Y. R. 389. B. C. 363.] will ever be remarkable for the consulship of a man of no ancestry; and remarkable also, for the institution of two new public offices, the prætor-patrician magistrates, sitting in curule chairs, ship and the curule ædileship. These honours the patricians claimed to themselves, as a compensation for their concession of one consul's place to the plebeians. The commons gave the consulship to Lucius Sextius, the introducer of the law by which it was obtained. The patricians, by their influence among the people, gained the prætorship for Spurius Furius Camillus son of Marcus; and the ædileship, for Cneius Quintius Capitolinus and Publius Cornelius Scipio, men of their own rank. The patrician colleague, given to Lucius Sextius, was Lucius Æmilius Mamercinus. In the beginning of the year, rumours were spread concerning the Gauls, who, after having been dispersed over Apulia, were now said to be collecting themselves into a body; and also concerning a revolt of the Hernicians. But all kinds of business were purposely deferred, lest the plebeian consul should have an opportunity of performing any service, and silence was as much observed on every subject, as though it had been proclaimed. The tribunes, however,

and clad in robes of state like consuls; the prætor even administering justice, as a colleague to the consuls, and elected under the same auspices. In consequence of this, the senate were afterwards ashamed to order, that the curule ædiles should be chosen from among the patricians. It was at first agreed that plebeians should be appointed every second year, but in after time the choice was left open. In the consulate of Lucius Genucius and Quintus Servilius, [Y. R. 390. B. C. 362.] who immediately succeeded, though affairs were tranquil both at home and abroad, yet, as if at no time there could be an exemption from danger and alarm, a pestilence broke out with great violence; a censor, a curule ædile, and three plebeian tribunes, are said to have fallen victims to it, while its ravages among the populace were proportionably numerous; but this calamity was rendered memorable chiefly by the death of Marcus Furius Camillus, whose loss, though at an advanced period of life, was much to be regretted: he was, in truth,

a man singularly eminent in every change of fortune; before he went into banishment, the first person in the state, as well in civil as military departments; in exile, still more illustrious, whether we consider the disaster by which the nation was induced to supplicate his return; or his own successful conduct, by which, on being restored to his country, he effected that country's liberation, and justified his own fair claim to celebrity. He then, through a course of twenty-five years after, uniformly maintained a character equal to this high rank of glory, allowed on all hands as deserving of being reckoned, next to Romulus, a second founder of the city of Rome.

metre, with the several parts of the performance properly adjusted to the music; the delivery of the words and the gesticulation being performed in concert with the music. Several years after this, Livius, who was the first that ventured to lay aside medleys, and to digest a story into a regular plot, being also, as all were at that time, the actor of his own pieces; and, having broken his voice by being obliged to repeat them too often, after requesting the indulgence of the public, placed a boy before the musician, to chaunt, while he himself performed the gesticulations. And this he executed with much freer action, because disengaged from attention to the management of his voice. Hence originated the practice of the chaunting being performed by another to the gesticulation of the actors, whose voices were eased of all but the dialogue. When, by this regulation, the scenic business was directed to other objects than laughter and intemperate mirth, and the amusement was by degrees converted into an art, the younger citizens, leaving to professed actors the exhibition of plays, began, according to the ancient practice, to throw out alternately ludicrous jests, comprised in verse, which thence got the name of exodia, or interludes, and were collected principally out of the Atellan farces. 3 This kind of entertainment, thus borrowed from Oscia, these younger

II. The pestilence continuing during both this and the following year, [Y. R. 391. B. C. 361.] in which Caius Sulpicius Pæticus and Caius Licinius Stolo were consuls; nothing memorable was transacted, only that, for the purpose of soliciting the favour of the gods, the Lectisternium was performed the third time since the building of the city. But the disorder receiving no alleviation, either from human wisdom or divine aid, the strength of the people's minds became almost overpowered by superstition, and it is said, that, on this occasion, among other devices for appeasing the wrath of heaven, scenic plays were introduced; a new thing to a warlike people; for hitherto there had been only the shows of the circus. How-citizens kept in their own hands, not suffering ever, this kind of performance was, as in general all beginnings are, but a trifling matter, and even that borrowed from abroad. Actors were sent for from Etruria, who, though without any poetical language, or any gestures correspondent to such language, yet regulating their motions by the measures of the music, exhibited, in the Tuscan manner, something far from ungraceful. The younger citizens soon began to imitate these; throwing out, at the same time, among each other, ludicrous expressions in coarse verses, and with gestures adapted to the words: this kind of performance then being received with approbation, in the course of frequent practice gained much improvement. The native performers were called Histriones, from the Tuscan word Hister, signifying a player; and they did not, as formerly, pronounce alternately, without regard to order, verses like the Fescennine, artless and unpolished, but represented comic medleys,' composed in regular

it to be debased by professed players. For this reason the rule was established, which is still observed, that the actors of these Atellan farces are not degraded from their tribe, and are capable of serving in the army, as if no way concerned in the business of the stage. Among the trifling beginnings of other matters, I thought it not amiss to give a view of the origin of theatrical exhibitions also, in order to show, from a moderate setting out, to what an intolerable extravagance they have proceeded; such extravagance, indeed, as scarcely to be supported by opulent kingdoms.

and other kinds of food, offered to Ceres, at the time of her festival, and was used to denote a poetic medley,

comprising a variety of topics and matter. Livius Andronicus, a freed man of Marcus Livius Salinator, began to write about the year of Rome 512.

2 It was customary at the end of every act to chaunt a set of verses, accompanied by the music, and with correspondent gesticulations.

3 The Atellan farces were borrowed from Atella, a town in Oscia, which was a district of Campania, com. prehending the two states of the Auruncians and Sidi

1 Satura signified a dish filled with a variety of fruits, cinians.